(RSF/IFEX) – On 8 April 2003, RSF called on British government ministers and members of parliament (MPs) to stop their sharp criticism of British media outlets’ coverage of the Iraq war. The organisation described the criticism as “unacceptable pressure” and an effort to get the media to change its policies. RSF also accused the parliamentarians […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 8 April 2003, RSF called on British government ministers and members of parliament (MPs) to stop their sharp criticism of British media outlets’ coverage of the Iraq war. The organisation described the criticism as “unacceptable pressure” and an effort to get the media to change its policies. RSF also accused the parliamentarians of attempting to discredit the work of certain journalists.
Tory MP Christopher Chope told the House of Commons on 3 April that the state-funded BBC’s reporting of Iraqi statements meant British taxpayers were being “forced to subsidise Saddam Hussein’s propaganda campaign.” He called on the BBC to withdraw its journalists from Baghdad.
Labour MP Kevin Hughes also criticised the journalists and suggested they were cowards. Defence Minister Geoff Hoon attacked the daily newspaper “The Independent” and its correspondent in Baghdad, Robert Fisk, and implied that he had allowed himself to be fooled by the regime and had dubious sources.
On 2 April, Home Secretary David Blunkett said journalists reporting “behind enemy lines” and giving “blow-by-blow” accounts of what was happening in Iraq were treating the coalition forces and Iraqi regime as “moral equivalents.” Journalists retorted that they had a right to inform the public and accused the government of trying to muzzle the press.
On 1 April, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the kind of media pressure surrounding the war in Iraq would have made World War II more difficult to win. He told a meeting of the Newspaper Society it “might have been much harder to maintain the country’s morale after Dunkirk if live reports had confronted the public with the brutal reality of German technical and military superiority.”
